Installations and methods for treating a food product cut into slices are known in the state of the art. For example, international patent application WO 2005/092109 describes a method for drying and maturing a sausage meat product cut into slices. Slicing machines capable of cutting slices of several pieces of a food product at the same time at a high speed are also known, such as, for example, the Weber 604 slicer. To subject the slices to treatment it is known, for example, from international patent application WO 2008135616, to arrange the slices in a single layer ordered formation on a system of conveyor belts moving the slices along a path including the passage through one or more treating units, such as, for example, a forced convection treating unit or a vacuum treating unit. However, this application neither describes nor suggests an apparatus or method for transferring the slices of food product from a large capacity slicer to a conveying surface of the system of conveyor belts in a single layer ordered formation.
The author of the present application has developed a food product treatment plant of the type described in which, in order to ensure that the slices are kept in the ordered formation while they are conveyed along the path, the slices are arranged in a single layer on large trays provided with a permeable support surface, and the trays loaded with the slices are conveyed by means of a conveyor device along the path including the passage through the one or more treating units. At the end of the treating line, the slices are unloaded from the trays in an unloading unit and directed to a packaging unit in which they are conditioned and packaged, whereas the empty trays are again directed by a conveyor towards the loading unit, passing through a tray washing unit. Nevertheless, an apparatus or process for transferring the slices from a large capacity slicer to the large trays at a sufficient speed to continuously supply one or more treating lines has not been described.
Patent FR-A-2839496 describes a process and an installation for the automatic production of food products from slices coming out of a slicing machine. The process comprises depositing the slices at a constant rate on a conveyor belt driven at a predetermined speed to obtain, at the end of the conveyor belt, an ejection and dropping of the slices onto a moving receiving tray, and synchronizing the movement of the receiving tray according to the dropping rate of the slices in order to distribute the slices on the tray according to a predetermined positioning. In this case, the tray forms part of a package for the slices and is small in size; therefore the process or the installation does not solve the problem of loading large trays at a high speed.
International patent application WO 02/22446 describes a device using several conveyor belts for conveying slices of a food product coming from a slicing machine, forming groups of partially overlapping slices and loading said groups of partially overlapping slices in trays for their packaging. Nor is the problem of loading trays at a high speed solved in this document.
Document US 2004/0016331 A1 discloses a slicing machine system comprising a slicing machine that slices several pieces of cured food product and deposits rows of slices on a single conveyor belt which moves in a forward direction at a speed synchronized with the operation of the sliding machine so that several lines of partially superimposed slices are formed in the longitudinal direction on the conveyor belt. A conveying system is provided for joining together the lines of slices to form a single line of partially superimposed slices in the longitudinal direction ready for packaging. A drawback of this slicing machine system is that is not able to form a complete array of slices having a number of slices in each transverse row greater than the number of pieces of food product that are sliced at once by the slicing machine, and wherein the slices, which are of a raw and uncured food product, are arranged in a single layer ready for a further treatment.
Document US 2004/031363 A1 discloses a slicing and conveying system that includes a slicing blade that cuts slices from a loaf, and an output conveyor located below the slicing blade for receiving the slices in a draft. A control system automatically adjusts a lateral movement of the output conveyor to form a laterally shingled draft of a consistent width in response to a sensed lateral dimension of the loaf being sliced. A drawback with this slicing machine is that it is not able to form several partial arrays of slices arranged in a single layer on different parallel conveyors configured to transfer the partial arrays onto an output conveyor to form a complete array of slices arranged in a single layer thereon.